LORETTA PROCTOR

About Me

'writing is soul substance'

I was born in Cairo, Egypt and came to Britain during a very cold winter. Quite a contrast to the heat of Cairo and my first ever view of snow! My father was from England and met my mother in Athens, Greece during the Second World War, fell in love at first sight and married her at once. They had to flee from Athens as the Germans were advancing steadily, having already over-run the Northern Greek city of Salonika. You can read about their ill-fated romance on my Articles page.
What are the things I love, besides, of course, my family and close friends? Raindrops and roses, brown paper packages tied up in string! . . . .but seriously, my favourite things are in Nature and in the often small, but meaningful personal events that bring one a sense of wonder or laughter and happiness. The eager anticipation of the varying seasons and their colours, growing things, dying things and the symbolism of it all. The 'great rondure' as Walt Whitman put it. You'll find nature plays a large part in my poetry and other writings but I also love art and images, ruins, and the great, passionate love stories; stories about complex and deep feeling women like Anna Karenina, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Madame Bovary, Therese Raquin, Gone with The Wind.
Writing is for me a process of self-exploration. That’s why I say it is soul substance. From an early age I was bathed in experiences that arose from a deep, delightful inner source, a pagan, cthonic layer of being that was connected with the woods, the trees, the waters and the land which to my innocent, uncluttered childhood imagination were inhabited by gods, nymphs, dryads and other beings. In adult life, I studied the works of Jung, Goethe, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, The Geeta and all those poets and writers who expressed their ideas and experiences of the soul. It’s been said that the journey is more important than the goal. This inner journey into the labyrinthine parts of the psyche is often terrifying and dangerous. But it is also filled with laughter, beauty and meetings with extraordinary people. I have been fortunate to have met some wonderful teachers and spiritual guides on my way. I thank them all.
For many years I wrote and published articles and poetry, kept private journals and diaries, painted pictures, drew mandalas. When I retired to Malvern, UK with my husband, I just wanted to write love stories again. Some of these stories took shape when I was quite young but they now began to morph into a more mature shape through the experience and understanding of maturity. They have altered along with me, some changing totally from the original idea but keeping to the themes and archetypes. Every writer has a theme which depicts his own inner feeling and visions, whether the theme is eros, crime, children’s tales, adventures, travel stories…it will reflect the writer’s own array of inner beings and sub personalities.
A writer without readers is like an actor with an empty auditorium. These tales are nothing clever, just meant to be entertaining or informative and their meaning, if any, is only now becoming apparent to me, So I hope the reader will enjoy the journey with me and perhaps encounter some familiar characters within themselves on the way.
You can contact me here:
Visit my blog at
My blog about Greece
Read an interview: